THE EDITOR, Sir:
TOULOUSE LAUTREC, the celebrated French painter, when asked why he was so fond of the bottle is said to have replied to the following effect:
"Each one has his own way of escaping from reality.
Ma has her prayers, Pa has his horses and hounds.
And I have my cognac."
During my longish and chequered life, I myself have 'escaped from reality' rarely by prayers, never by horses and hounds but occasionally by cognac and other distilled spirits.
Nowadays I escape by reading poetry. My favourite poem is the Persian classic 'The Rubayyat of Omar Khayyam' (Fitzgerald's translation). At first it moved me to write doggerel.
Thus a few weeks ago when the dollar was in free fall my version of the oft-quoted verse from 'The Rubayyat' "The moving finger writes..." was:
"The slipping dollar slides, and having slid
Slides on: nor all the NIR or indexed bond
Shall lure it back to cancel half a cent
Nor all the tears and spinning cause it to relent."
When the dollar fluctuated and eventually appreciated, sticking closely to one of the original verses, I wrote:
"For in and out, above, about below,
'Tis nothing but a magic shadow-show
Played in a box whose candle is the sun
Round which the phantom dollars come and go."
My latest effort was when I felt down and overcome by 'dolour'. Telling myself to 'forget it' and parodying the well-known verse from 'The Rubayyat' "A book of verses... a jug of wine" I 'crafted' the following:
"A compact disc of Tosh beneath the bough,
A jug of wash, a slice of pone and thou
Beside me in the wilderness singing
'Sorry fi mawga dawg'.
Oh wilderness were paradise enow!"
But, alas, back to reality. There is much in common between Khayyam, I am and Tosh but whereas you may escape with Khayyam you cannot escape from I am. There is little wonder that Tosh sang "I am the toughest" and added for good measure 'I am that I am that I am'.
I am, etc.,
BERESFORD HAY
P.O. Box 1191
Kingston 8
